Game #853: Dino Crisis 2

  And people thought Resident Evil changed....

 Boy, oh boy, Dino Crisis 2 must've been a bit controversial at the time, because this is a complete genre shift. This is an action game that plays like a survival horror game, and it's really good.

 You could think of this as a Mercenaries Mode for Dino Crisis, except made as a full game, kinda like the unfairly, and I'm to blame as well, criticized  Resident Evil Mercenaries but with a bit more depth. You have a fully visible health bar, you get combo points for murdering dinosaurs without getting hit and the such. With the circle button you can quickly use your subweapon, and you can use the triangle button to dodge on any direction, which is a bit wonky because when using tank controls and fixed camera angles it's anyone's guess where your character will jump to. Oh, and characters default to a run, there's no way to walk in this game.

 And yeah, I said characters, Regina is forced to share the limelight with series' newcomer Dylan. Dylan looks like a surfer bro in armor, and I didn't really like him, I kinda hated the fact that Dylan is the new focus. Heck, you could remove Regina from the plot and nothing would change, not so without Dylan. To be honest, Regina was the original heroine and I really liked her, I don't care about the new guy. You'll start the game as Dylan, but the game will switch your playable character back and forth as the story progresses.

 The game did away with 3-D environments, it's back to pre-rendered backgrounds. It was probably done in order to fit more enemies into the screen at the same time, and even then you might come across a few moments of slowdown every now and then.

 Every zone has a seemingly endless amount of constantly respawning enemies, but after you defeat 20-25 dinosaurs they'll stop respawning until you exit the zone. I don't mind being assaulted by an onslaught of enemies, but enemies spawn every time the fixed-camera angle changes, and sometimes they'll respawn right behind you, even if what was behind you was a dead end, which is just ridiculous.

 The game is an Arcade shooter all the way through. Every time you defeat a dinosaur you earn points, when you defeat them in quick succession without taking damage you earn small bonuses and if you can get from one area to another without getting touched(But killing at least 4 dinosaurs or so) you'll get a huge untouched point bonus. Points can be used at any Save Point to purchase small bonuses, like Armor that stops bleeding, new weapons, ammo, increase your maximum ammo stock and even healing items. It's a fun system that constantly rewards you for murdering dinosaurs and trying your best not to get hurt.

 Regina and Dylan share their inventory, somewhat. Healing items, Key items and points are shared between both, but each character has different weapons they can use and purchase. This is also really neat because each character feels different due to their different weapons.

 There are a few very basic puzzles here and there, but nothing too complicated. That said, you might discover, after using the ship for the very first time, that you're missing a key. In which case, you have to go back to the island you where before. So, where is this keycard? You have to inspect a waterfall a couple of times, until a green thing pops up and guides you to the keycard. Obscure much?

 Beating the game unlocks Extra Crisis, which is but a small diversion. It's you and a pre-set loadout against 5 waves of enemies on a very basic and boring black-and-green arena. The novelty here is that you can use any leftover Points to purchase other characters, like a tank or even Rick and Gail from the first game. You can even unlock dinosaurs, which will then allow you to play a very basic 2-player dinosaur fighting minigame.

 This might get me in hot water with Survival Horror enthusiasts... but I loved this game. It's pure, arcade-shooter fun. And I love how tank controls worked in this game, it made it quite interesting.

 8.5

Game #852: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5

 Speaking of horror games...

 I'm sure Robomodo didn't set out to make the worst Tony Hawk game on a home console, and I'm sure that Activision didn't give them a fair amount of time to complete it, but boy, every horror story you've heard about Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 is true, this game is hot garbage.

 I didn't buy the game right away because I hate digital-physical hybrids, but luckily(???) the game released on PS3 and X360 in a more complete state, kind of, the PS4 and XOne versions would end up getting a few extra levels and characters for free. Still, this version doesn't require a 7GB download, so it's still the winner among losers.

 I don't even know where to start with how Robomodo screwed the pooch. Let's start with the fact that moving around feels stiff and floaty at the same time. It's hard to describe, but it doesn't feel as good as the older games. It's easy to get stuck in corners and have a hard time getting out of them, because your hitbox when starting a run is horribly large. In order to help you move and interact with objectives you can start a run with R2 and break with L2. These two are actually good additions, since sometimes I'd accidentally start a manual when I was trying to talk to an NPC in classic Tony Hawk. That said, it's not perfect and it's kinda slippery, so stopping right where you want to stop is still a bit of a challenge. Sometimes even if you press R2 your character will take a running step but you won't move from where you are.

 The trick repertoire has been gimped so hard. Manual and Grind tricks are completely gone, so no mashing buttons for extra point multipliers, which is lame. Double tap flips are gone, in a way, since now they are your super moves. The Special gauge is very different in this game, after it's full you have to press L1 to enter Special mode. This is dumb because L1 is also used to spin in the air, so you'll accidentally turn Special on until you get used to it. Once you enter special mode all your grabs and flips turn into alternate moves, which is where the double-tap flips from previous games are, but this is a bit annoying because special moves require more air, and now your comboing is gimped. Now then, I don't think this was an awful idea, buuuuuut the way it used to work was much better.

 Robomodo actually tried adding a new mechanic, which, fair enough, they wanted to add something to the franchise, but the Slam was such a bad addition. Pressing triangle while on the air will make your skater quickly slam down into the ground. Most of the time you wish to use it it won't come out right, the rest of the time you'll be trying to grind onto a rail or skate the wall, but instead get forced down into the ground and losing your combo. To be fair, Robomodo listened and added the ability to turn off the slam from the menu, and this is on the PS3's disc by default, but I wanted to play the proper Tony Hawk 5 experience.

 Missions in the game are triggered by interacting with some dull and boring objective markers... or just press Select and pick any mission from the list. The missions are pretty repetitive, most of them are:
A highscore challenge.
'Break X amount of Y', 'Collect C-O-M-B-O letters', 'Collect S-K-A-T-E Letters'.
Grind/Manual/Collect X while having a high combo multiplier.
'Do tricks so that your head doesn't explode'
Collect X amount of Y and take them somewhere.
Run through the rings(VERY annoying because you don't know where the next ring will pop up.)
Use flip tricks to shoot something and break targets(Or just touch the targets).
Clear the pool of stuff.
And a few other variety objectives.
 If they did anything right, they took the AM/Pro/Sick challenge system from the final Tony Hawk games, which was a fantastic way of letting the player challenge themselves as much as they wanted without the rest of the game from them.

 The game has 7 stages and they are pretty mediocre. The second level looks kinda nice, but some of the stage-limits aren't very clearly defined. There's a school level, which is actually part of Tony Hawk 2's school level, but they managed to make it feel lifeless. Rooftops is one of the worst stages in the entire series, it's so bad that they had to give you a double-jump/ollie power up in order to traverse it, which is so dumb. In order to go to another level you have to pause the game, pick 'exit game' and then select 'Play' from the main menu all over again. What the hell? Oh, and the 'retry' option for challenges isn't immediate, which is ridiculous, you have to wait a few seconds after picking the option before the game prompts the window to ask you if you really want to retry the challenge.

 Character customization is a joke. You can't create a new character, instead, you have to customize pre-existing skaters, but it doesn't work very well, because a customized skater can only be made up of customizable parts, so you actually have to pick between 'Pro', how the character looks, and 'Custom', which is the random mish-mash of seemingly random heads and bodies. Do stat upgrades mean anything in the game? On one hand, you starting stats feel already pretty high, as I was doing massive jumps from the get-go, but on the other hand, every stat point I added to my stats felt like it changed nothing.

 The music is actually great, but I'm not sure if many of the tracks actually fit the game. The graphics are a huge disappointment. I think a cellshaded look would've worked great, but everything looks very basic. The game has an awful time loading textures, sometimes even loading a cloth's texture in customize-character can take upwards of ten friggin' seconds. Oh, and the framerate.... it can drop into the single digits for a couple of seconds every now and then. It's rather uncommon, but it happens.

 Robomodo had a very silly sense of humor, which I can respect, but I'm not sure if it fits the punkier tone of Tony Hawk. Inflating heads, pushing balls out of a pool, a 'Giant' power up on the fourth stage.. it's all very silly, and it adds its own flavor into the game, but I don't think it's a good fit for the series.

 Well... it's every bit as bad as they say. I have absolutely nothing positive to say about this one. I'd rather play Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 over this one, because even though the gameplay is a bit more limited, at least everything it did, it did right. Still, I don't blame Robomodo, I blame Activision putting them under such a short deadline to milk every last nickel they could out of Tony Hawk.

2.0

Game #851: Dino Crisis

 Survival Horror devolved.

 Well, it's September, and Halloween is better enjoyed with a two-month celebration, so I'll ease into Horroctober with Dino Crisis. I've always said that Resident Evil was more Action than Survival Horror, at least since Resident Evil 2, but this game? Oh boy, this game...

 Ammo is incredibly scarce and most of your guns are incredibly weak, it takes about 10-12 bullets to down a velociraptor, this game's basic zombie, and while Regina can walk while aiming, it's slow and the raptors are barely fazed by your shots. That said, healing items are overly plentiful, so it's kind of like a reversed Resident Evil, which gave you more ammo than health pick ups.

 Not only are raptors way deadlier than REvil's zombies, they also pack more means to hurt you and can chase you down faster. The game takes place in a research facility, an excuse to let you trigger laser walls inside a few corridors in order to gate enemies away from you. It really feels like a real survival horror game, because I quickly learned that guns were worthless and learning to evade enemies was the name of the game.

 To add to the feeling of helplessness, raptors can jump over a few gates as well as smash through some doors, so unlike Resident Evil you aren't completely safe when entering a different room. As a matter of fact, Regina can lose her grip on her gun when attacked, which means you have to retrieve it from the floor, hardcore! To make matters worse, there's the bleeding status effect that may trigger when harmed, when bleeding you'll gradually take damage as you move. You need to use health packs to recover your health, but only Hemostats can fix a bleeding wound

 There's an awful 'Danger' mechanic that isn't explained in game, so I had to resort to my instruction booklet. Sometimes, during cutscenes, a Danger sign will appear below the screen, you must then mash buttons if you don't want to take damage. I thought it was dumb.

 You can save an unlimited amount of times but only when exiting specific rooms, labeled with an S on the map. These rooms are incredibly sparse, which makes it tougher than REvil. The Storage boxes also function differently, you need Plugs, key items, to open them, and they only connect between other boxes of the same color. On the flip side, while your inventory is rather small, key items don't take up these precious slots.

 While this game has tank controls and fixed camera angles, the entire game, meaning characters and environments, are fully 3-D. It's one of the best looking games on the system, easily. There's no slowdown either, and they pulled some sneaky moves to make the T-Rex look really scary with the PS1's weak hardware.

 There are 4 points in the game in which you can select from two different routes, adding some replay value to the game. There are also 3 different endings. Overall, the game took me little more than four hours to complete, and I unlocked a minigame in which you must hunt down a number of dinosaurs under a set amount of time.

 The game is a bit too vague and sometimes figuring out what to do can be tough. I had to consult a FAQ at least twice because I had no idea where to go or what I had missed. There's this one time in which you can't advance any further until you try to interact with a other you can't open yet because you are missing the N disc key. That's dumb, because I had checked the door earlier and I knew that I was missing the key item necessary to open the door, but I was just desperate going in circles not knowing what to do. Oh, and you don't keep memos you read, so any code or password you find? Write it down.

 I'll grant it this, the game is scarier than Resident Evil... at first. Raptors are quick and have various different attacks, you have to contend with the possibility of bleeding to death and you can have your gun knocked out of your hands... but then you'll notice that you'll be swamped with healing supplies. What the game lacks in ammo you get in health packs. Heck, there's a moment in the game in which Regina is parted from her gun by a Dinosaur. I picked it up, but didn't equip it again, because guns were useless. Thus, I spent the next two hours running around, unarmed, avoiding dinos like a pro. And by the end of the game, all three supply boxes were filled to the brim with healing items.

 There are no true bosses in the game. A Tyranosaurs Rex hunts you down every now and then, but most of the time you can just escape the room or 'defeating' it means running around for a set amount of time. After realizing how useless the gun was, I finished the game with healing items to spare and I only killed 3 dinosaurs, the first one was the one that made me realize it was a waste of time, and the other two were in my way, so I used the Lethal Poison Dart, which is an instant kill. I had three of those darts, but missed the third one, so I just reverted to evasive maneuvers. 

 Honestly? I prefer the REvil approach of having more ammo than health pick ups, but I still enjoyed Dino Crisis. Funnily enough, I think the REvil approach would've worked better in this game, since dinosaurs are far deadlier than zombies, so a more guns ablazing approach would fit the game. I don't think it's quite as good as say REvil 2, but it's a fun time if you enjoy the genre.

7.0

Game #850: Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS - MaxiBoost ON

 It's been a long, long, long wait.

 It's been over four years since Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS Full Boost first release, and I know I'm not the only one who was begging for a port of Mobile Suit Gundam Ectreme VS MaxiBoost ON, and somehow, someone up there in Bandai-Namco's offices listened, and it's finally here. We had to sit through the awfully misguided Extreme VS Force, and the weird consolation prize that was Gundam Versus, but right now, it doesn't matter, because MaxiBoost is here and it's everything I wanted and hoped for.

 I've already written at length about why I love this game so much, and at its core it hasn't really changed, so... yeah, it's still amazing. On the other hand, I LOVE finally getting to play the game with English menus, this is everything I've ever wanted since Gundam VS Zeta Gundam on PS2.

 The Burst has system yet again, now it's divided into three kinds: Shooting, Defensive and Physical offense. To be perfectly honest, I don't really care too much about this change, and I don't think it really changes how you approach the game, but it does make it so that now you know how to play your defensive game when the opponent engages its burst.

 At first I was gonna complain that I missed vanilla Extreme's Single Player bosses... but they are still here. If you beat a route without using continues and reaching 600.000 points you can then fight a boss from the original or from Full Boost, which is pretty neat. That said, MaxiBoost's new boss(Singular, since it's the same for all routes) is rather lame in comparison!

 The 1000 cost units got bumped to 1500, which is an interesting change, and I welcome it. The single player Mission Mode is pretty much on par with what came before, but instead of upgrading your Mobile Suits you can equip them with passive abilities to enhance their performance.

 The game has over 183 mobile suits to play as, you simply can't top this. Full Boost introduces the lame clones, such as Lunamaria's Impulse for Shinn's Impulse, and most of these clones are pretty much identical but with lower or higher stats, which is really lame. That said, I welcome the ones that at least look different, like the orange Destiny, Kamille's Gundam MK II(which is black and lacks the Super mode) or even the orange Gaia which lacks the ability to change into the dog form at will, but suits like Lacus' Infinite Justice and Lunamaria's Impulse are just lazy and boring. That said, there are like 20 clone suits at most, and even less of the worthless type, so there are at least 150 unique suits.

 This is a Playstation 3 game and it shows. I didn't give Gundam Versus enough credit last year, because that game looked quite better than this one. That said, the PS3 versions of Extreme VS had some slowdown here and there, but this version runs at a smooth 60 FPS, even split-screen multiplayer maintains a steady 60fps. And while Extreme Versus looks 'better' as far as the quality of the 3-D models, I prefer this pseudo cell-shaded look. It's a more colorful game, and I think it suits it better.

 Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS - MaxiBoost ON is the culmination of the Extreme VS series, and the wait was worth it, painful, but worth it. This might very well be my favorite game on the console.

 10

Game #849: Aggressive Inline

 As Tony Hawk as you can get without being Tony Hawk.

 I purchased Aggressive Inline back in the day because, I think, Gamespot's review convinced me that it was the next big thing. The game was alright, but it was no Tony Hawk, that's for sure. And that's pretty much my opinion right now, the game is decent, but it ain't the Birdman itself.

 The game follows Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 blueprint, although, to be fair, this game released first. Still, considering the released the same year, it was probably a coincidence. I felt like removing the timer and adding mission giving NPCs was a step in the right direction, so the fact that this game does that is a pretty good thing in my book...

 ... Except that the timer isn't really gone. While there's not a ticking clock breathing down your neck, you do have a JUICE gauge that you need to keep full, by performing tricks or collecting Juice boxes from the environment, lest you want a game over. It's an incredibly dumb mechanic, and sometimes, when searching for stuff or when I got too invested in a certain objective I lost track of it. You can get back into the game for 100000 points, but this mechanic shouldn't be here.

 Only 7 levels, but they are decent. Factory was the only stage I really hated. Each stage has a Key and a Upgrade. The Key opens up a section in another level, while the upgrade adds a major buff to one of your techniques, such as SPIN, FAKE or JUMP. You also upgrade your stats by performing actions associated with them. Want to enhance you grind? Do a lot of grinds and land the combos. In my opinion it takes a little too long to level up your stats, and every character must be leveled up separately. They start off with abysmal stats.

 Basic gameplay is where ultimately the game comes up short when compared to the Hawk. Flips and Tricks are both done with the square button, to pull a flip instead of a grab you need to press to directions on the pad before tapping square. Needless to say, it doesn't work as well as giving each action a separate button. On the flip side, the Circle button is context sensitive, and can be used to vault over walls or swing from poles. It's a really good idea, but it shouldn't have to had cost us dedicated buttons for flips and grabs.

 But the biggest problem are the manuals. C'mon, don't lie to me or yourself, when you play Tony Hawk, you mash Up and Down like there's no tomorrow. You just do. Here, coming out of a Revert(Cess in this game) and mashing Up and Down will just end your combo on a whimper. You must actually time Up - Down or Down- Up as as soon as the Cess animation ends. Do it sooner or later, or press a third direction on the pad, and your manual won't come out. It's not impossible to get the hang of it, by the last levels I was able to link 5 cesses or more on a single combo semi consistently, but it's still not ideal and it kinda ruins the flow of the game.

 Besides that, there's a general sense of lack of polish that permeates through the game. Sometimes you'll try to jump of a ramp or quarter pipe, but your jump won't come out just right and stuff like that.

 All that said, the soundtrack is glorious. It has a few rap songs I didn't really like, but most of it is rock and pop punk, and there's a lot of music I listen to while I work nowadays!

 Aggressive Inline did its best to copy Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and for the most part, the got it quite right. The game itself is good enough, even if lacking a bit in polish, and the goals per level are quite decent, but the things they changed in an effort to be different actually hurt it in the end. They should've gone full rip-off, because at least then we'd have an excellent clone instead of a decent imitator.

 6.5

Game #848: Spongebob Squarepants - Battle for Bikini Bottom

 Sink or swim? I'd rather sink with this game.

 Last year I heard a lot of good things about Spongebob videogames so I decided to take the plunge and bought a whole lot of them, including this one here Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom. And mind you, I was never too big of a fan of Spongebob, as a matter of fact, I outgrew it pretty much after it's first season and hated it afterwards.

 It's REALLY good, like really good. Movement feels slippery and cheap, y'know, like those quick 'n' dirty low budget platformers that tend to plague every console, however, the game plays really well.

 The characters and world of Spongebob translated very well into this simple 3-D models, probably because the art style itself is very simple. It's fun seeing all the different gestures Spongebob and his friends pull off.

 It's hard for me to explain why it's so good, because the puzzles aren't particularly imaginative and the platforming challenges aren't particularly exciting, however, everything works well and the game is just fun to play.

 The game's biggest flaw are the bosses, they take too long to complete because their patterns are lengthy, but they aren't hard at all, they are just boring.

 I liked how Spongebob, Patrick and Sandy have different abilities, so it makes sense why you can only swap to a specific character during levels. I found Sandy to be my favorite character because of here ever useful gliding ability, plus, her basic attack is a Karate chop. Patrick was probably my least liked, his basic attack, a belly bash, had a short range, and lifting/throwing melons wasn't my cup of tea.

 Not every level is a winner. There's a stage with a lot of sneaking required, which isn't too bad, but it has this Museum stage... at first, Barnacle Boy won't talk to you unless you go in as Spongebob, but the platforming challenge inside is impossible... unless you're playing as Sandy. I was stuck for son long attempting impossible jumps until I decided to look online and it turned out I should've been using Sandy all along. Still, to be fair, most Platforming games have at least one or two annoying stages or parts.

 Gold Spatulas are the main collectible, but there are also Shiny Things. Literal shiny things. These are a form of currency that can be used to open up routes to Golden Spatulas, purchase Golden Spatulas from Mr. Krabs and open up the theater, which I don't know what it does(Might look it up!) since it requires an obscene 40000 shiny things. Needless to say, grinding levels for this isn't my idea of fun.

 I hate to say it, but Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom is REALLY good. And this is coming from someone that cares very little, if at all, about the character. Sure, it has that cheap-feeling slippery movement that is pretty much a trademark from low budget, low effort platformers, but it actually plays really well, it's easy to tell that the people that made this game cared.

8.0

Game #847: Naruto: Ninja Council 3

 Hot ninja garbage!

 Way before I got into the Naruto anime, I played Naruto Ninja Council 2 on the GBA, back before it even got translated. I remember this mysterious unlockable character named 'Rock Lee' and I couldn't wait to see how he looked like. I liked the game a lot, so much so that I purchased it after it got localized and even started a FAQ for it, not that a beat'em up needs a FAQ. Naruto Ninja Council 3 was Naruto's first Nintendo DS game, and it's also a sequel to Ninja Council 2, using the same graphics and everything. It also sucks.

 There's no story, just a 7x7 grid made out of 49 missions. And it's dumb stuff like 'break 10 rocks' or 'defeat 10 bats', capture 10 flags before the opponent. It's idiotic and mindless. Maybe it's more fun in multiplayer. You can unlock 13 other missions.

 The controls take a while getting used to, it's so weird having B as the run button and not the jump button, since usually the attack button, Y in this case, is next to the jump button, A, but not so here. I keep running when I mean to jump. The wall jump is very clunky. Using touch buttons for the super moves is uncomfortable and dumb. And they also require touch minigames to work, and sometimes, even blowing into the mic. What the hell??

 In the game's defense... there are a lot of playable characters, 27 in all. And I've always liked these sprites, I thought Ninja Council 2 looked great, and this is no exception.

 Stages are one huge multi-leveled map, which makes gameplay dumb, because you are usually searching for stuff. Sometimes your target actively avoids you, which makes it a chore. You are given a radar on the bottom screen, but it only highlights enemy bosses, and since it's a radar and not a proper map, it's not very helpful. There's a new High Jump, Up+A to help you reach the higher parts of a stage, but platforms usually stop you on your way to the top.

 After clearing each mission you get nuggets of infinite wisdom such as 'hitting an stationary enemy is easier than hitting a moving enemy'. Thank you, captain obvious. Other times you get useless advice, for example, in a mission you have to defeat two giant spiders, and after you beat it, the piece of advice is "Defeat the smaller spiders first". Don't. It's a waste of time and they don't get in your way. What the hell????

 There are a few missions about defeat a certain amount of a certain enemy. This missions seem impossible at first... You are expected to use a screen-clearing super move, like Naruto's Toad Blade or Sasuke's Phoenix Flower, to supposedly defeat about 8 enemies a pop. It's ridiculously dumb, you have to constantly spam this move, even when no enemies are on-screen, in order to clear missions.

 It's bad. The mission structure with no plot is already a poor idea by itself, but the fact that so many missions are boring, like collecting banners, or dumb for the license, such as defeating X amount of animals, is the final nail in its coffin. Level design ranges from abysmal to just plain annoying as a million different things  hit you and your opponent, be it rocks or bats. The character variety is nice, but what's the use if the game sucks? Honestly, this is one of the worst Naruto games I've played next to Powerful Shippuden, and that's just shameful considering how much I liked Ninja Council 2.

 2.5